MultiplyBlendUserControlled?

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

If I import (and export after that) a model in MCX where there is a material with emissive mode "MultiplyBlendUserControlled", MCX shortens that to "MultiplyBlendUser" somewhere in the process.

Are those two synonymous?

Apologies if it is a daft question, I'm not very well versed in the innards of FS models!

(I'm trying to modify an old VC, and that particular part turns out wonky after MCX has processed the model ...).

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

To expand a bit on the issue, if all I do is import and export, the part that was "MultiplyBlendUserControlled" ends up being "AdditiveNightOnly".

Seems like MCX misinterprets that particular material attribute.

It doesn't happen on model import (if you look at the material attribute in the editor before exporting it says "MultiplyBlendUser") but rather it gets "lost in translation" in one of the intermediate steps.

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

By the way, it's odd that "MultiplyBlendUserControlled" gets shortened but "AdditiveNightOnlyUserControlled" doesn't!

 

[n4gix]

Clearly there is a problem then, because the different emissive modes are very, V E R Y different!

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

In this particular case I used MultiplyBlend as an intermediate solution, the only drawback being that I cannot control the lighting of that part. I can live with that, but I would like to get it perfect eventually.

 

[Dutcheeseblend]

You're using the latest development release of MCX?

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

Yeah.

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

A little more experimenting revealed that it really is a translation error in the MCX "X" exporter.

If I let MCX "keep X" when compiling (option) and look at the X file, the material attribute in question is (wrongly) named "MultiplyBlendUser". XToMdl doesn't recognise this attribute value and substitutes with fallback value "AdditiveNightOnly" when compiling.

When I hand edit the X file, renaming "MultiplyBlendUser" to "MultiplyBlendUserControlled", XToMdl compiles everything correct.

(So now I got a workaround ... for the remaining 14 VC variants!).

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

My little project that would not have been possible without MCX, translation trouble or not:

I wanted to make the IRIS F-16 VC work with P3D light. Out of the box the additive parts don't have enough "oomph" in the P3D environment, so I needed to fiddle with "Final Alpha Multiply" for these.

If the translation issue hadn't popped up, this modification would literally have been as easy as changing 2 parameter values in the MCX material editor and exporting, this says a lot about how awesome Arno's tool is.

Now I finished all the VC variants, with the added "translation correcting" steps of hand editing the X file and recompiling with XToMdl (using the DICT generated by MCX so all the custom animations work!), and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Here's how the VC looks in FSX:

Here's how the FSX VC looks in P3D (with stock HDR on), the HUD in particular is very hard to read, but the DED and MFD's can be tricky too in certain light conditions:

This is the modified VC in P3D:

Not too bad.

 

[n4gix]

Very nicely done!

 

[Pyscen]

I 2nd the motion! Very well done!

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

Thanks folks, much appreciated, but it's really nothing more than a low down and dirty hack by a low down and dirty hacker.

However the whole excercise, as I see it, was pure win/win:
1: I got a nice P3D cockpit for my favorite "go-to" aircraft.
2: I learned a bit more about FS model innards.
3: I had some interesting reading long the way, including Bill's wiki page on XToMdl and Ant's PDF about collimated HUD's. Many thanks for those.
4: I uncovered a small bug in the MCX X exporter that, when fixed, will make MCX even better.

I also want to thank Arno for MCX, it's crazy good.

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

I cautiously bring this up again, as I still see the translation error in the latest development release, and I cannot find the issue in the issues/wish list.

Apologies if it's already there Arno.

- JP

 

[Jsgold]

JP: I am also experiencing problems with custom animations (they do not work) when exporting a model using MCX, hopefully Arno can sort it out.

Best

Jim

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

JP: I am also experiencing problems with custom animations (they do not work) when exporting a model using MCX ...

That's certainly not the same issue Jim; if you have a problem with animation export you should report it (properly) so it can get fixed.

 

[arno]

Hi,

I must have missed this thread completely, that's why it's not on the wishlist. I see it's from the time my son was in hospital. I'll have a look.

 

[arno]

Hi,

It should be fixed in the development release of tomorrow, in the enumeration of possible values the MultiplyBlendUserControlled value was defined wrong indeed.

 

[arno]

Hi Jim,

JP: I am also experiencing problems with custom animations (they do not work) when exporting a model using MCX, hopefully Arno can sort it out.

Maybe we should move this issue into a separate thread, but I can't reproduce the issue with custom animations here. Do you have a little more information on what you are doing when they break?

 

[JP "Penz" Pedersen]

Hi,

It should be fixed in the development release of tomorrow, in the enumeration of possible values the MultiplyBlendUserControlled value was defined wrong indeed.

Wow that was quick!

Thanks a lot Arno, and once again thank you for all the indispensable tools you make for us.

EDIT: Just wanted to add that I tested the update, and I can report this bug as being nicely squashed. "MultiplyBlendUserControlled" is no longer unknown to MCX, great success!